I arrive at the stone ramp leading to the beetles with the defenders carrying the new spear-headed one. Let's just hope that this works.
“Elysia!" Oberon leaves the entrance in the hands of the mantis defenders and comes over "Is this the new defender? It looks… different”
“Yes it is and that is the point, I realised I was holding myself back with the way I was thinking. If all goes to plan this will be just one of many new designs to help with the defence.”
“No time like the present… the beetles are getting closer. they are not upon us just yet. It's just. I think the mushrooms are slowing their effect."
Well, that couldn’t have happened at a worse time “how much closer?”
“they have moved roughly my arm's length closer to the entrance.”
Looking back and forth between Oberon and the space left, that leaves us what? About 3-4 days max and that's only if nothing happens. No use thinking about this now. Let's test this new defender first then we can decide on what to do after.
I mentally nudge the defenders and get them to place the newest addition on our side of the ramp. For now, as I don't know what's going to happen, I have all of the defenders hold onto the base to try and keep it steady. Then I finally give the order to attack.
The spear-like head rises up above the base and looks posed almost like a snake. it swings its head down. the next thing I know the head is back into position for another strike. The only reason I realised it had actually finished was due to the corpse of a beetle speared through being swarmed by its brethren as it rolled down the other side of the ramp.
We try again, this time I get all the defenders to let go and allow the new spear defender to stand on its own. It strikes again. This time however it doesn't go so well. The force behind its attack swings its base upward and knocking its aim off course. Due to the sheer amount of beetles here it still hit one but the attack wasn’t fatal.
That won't do. I especially don't want to have all of my defenders having to babysit this one due to its inability to stay upright. Luckily there’s a solution. I'm glad I widened its base using stone as it now allows me to bury it in order to keep it stable. Both Oberon and I move the stones at the top of the ramp away and dig a hole large enough to bury both the base and bowl moss housing the body. Once done, we get the defenders to help place it inside and drop all the debris back on top. Now the main test starts.
I give the spear defender the order to now pick off all beetles that come into range. The head rears up and I see the blur as it starts plucking the beetles out of the air and they roll down the ramp like the first. This is so much more efficient than what the defenders and Oberon could do. On top of having a much higher range, it's just so much faster.
“Well, that is impressive. Good work Elysia”
“Thank you, though unfortunately, it doesn't solve our problem.”
“Indeed.”
Oberon noticed it too. For every beetle, the new defenders kill another from the masses takes its place while even more swarm and eat the corpse of the original. It's not possible to see into the expanse anymore but I doubt we have done much damage to the whole.
“On the upside though Oberon, this at least relieves you from watch duty for now. I have 2 more of this defender ready to be made when I go back. If we place all three here we should at least make a dent in their numbers before they get through.” As they kill them faster I will also get more mana to use towards increasing my rank. Which reminds me, I'll need to check my progress to my next rank when I get back.
“Now, I feel like we need to decide on what to do next. While I go back to summon the other defenders can you start looking into sealing this place off? I feel like putting a large amount of ruble between us and them may at least slow them down once the mushrooms stop working.”
“I agree, that would be a good idea however, might I suggest an alteration?”
“Go ahead”
“Rather than just fully blocking it off and not knowing exactly where our enemy is, it might be best to place a series of doors between. if they are made using defenders as a base we will at least know when they are coming.”
“That's fine and all but I don't think we have the tools to make a door that moves…” then an idea springs to mind. The boulder trap before. “Unless we make the door roll, of course! You start working on making the series of entrances Oberon, ill make the ‘doors’ when you are done. Start by making the entranceways smaller. I will then need a slit at the halfway mark slightly larger than the entranceway on one side, that will allow the stone to roll out of the way and create a tight seal when closed.”
I mentally sent over a shaky image of what I'm describing to him hoping that it makes the details clearer. He nods “would it be possible to have two defenders to help with the task?”
“Of course”
With that now sorted I now need to think of the farm. It's just not going to survive here at all Once the beetles break through. I have 2 days at the minimum and so I feel splitting it up and replanting near my heart would be the right choice. hopefully, the next harvest I get from the red moss will be bigger to compensate for this extra work. I should have done so originally As there’s enough space in my heart room and it's where I actually use the material in the first place. I call over the small and larger defender that I used originally to harvest the moss and give them the task of replanting and propagating the red moss in my heart room. For the bowl moss, I ask them to place it into the room that was originally for the disposal of the bug corpses. Seems the beetles eat everything that is killed at the moment so the room isn’t going to get much use if I leave it for its original purpose.
Sent the rest of the defenders towards my heart room. Oberon will need a lot of stone to build the entrances that will keep the beetles back. I don't want that to eat into the supply I use for building more defenders and so think this is a good of a time as any to start digging towards another location. The extra stone can be used to supply Oberon building efforts. Also, you never know I might find more of the brown mushrooms. With a sigh, I make my way back to the heart room.
The defenders dig into the wall, knocking stone loose with every swing. I decided to have them tunnel on the left side of the wall past the first entrance Oberon made. Hopefully, we will be able to seal ourselves off if anything goes wrong. earlier on, I checked in on my core and found that I'm already halfway to my next rank which is good. Although I need to hope I get there fast enough as I won't take the risk of ranking up if I know the swarm could get through at any moment. Nothing would be worse than being in a forced sleep while they murder me. The other two spear constructs have also been completed and are in the process of being sent to the expanse entrance to be planted next to the first.
Everything is being taken care of at this moment in time. The tunnel is pretty crowded right now so I cant help with the digging. Oberon is still working on the first of what is going to be a set of 10 doors going toward my heart. And my small and large twin defenders have already started the first set of red moss farms along the inside of my heart rooms walls. I need to do something, but what? I suppose I can decide on the design of the door I will be using. They are going to be large circular stones but I haven't thought about how I'm going to get them to the location. It would have been fine if I was able to create a defender away from my heart but I can't so I have to think of a way to create the defender here then transport it to the location I need it, just like the spear defenders.
Could I make a door that grows or at least maybe opens out? Won't that leave gaps? Maybe if it has many arms that can link and twist to form the circular stone the door needs to be? Looks like I found my answer to what needs doing next.
